Use this latching breastfeeding video to help evaluate your baby’s latch. Check out the latching tips below.
Why is a deep latch important?
- Mom is more comfortable
- Baby transfers more milk
- Healthy milk supply
- a deep latch allows baby to remove more milk with less effort. This creates more prolactin receptors and tells Mom’s body she needs more milk which establishes a healthy milk supply.
What you see in this latching breastfeeding video that you want to see in your latches:
- Baby’s mouth is wide open
- Baby’s chin is up against the breast
- Baby’s lips flanged
- Baby is covering a lot of the areola (the darker skin on the breast)
- The latch is asymmetrical: meaning baby is covering more areola by his chin than his nose
How to obtain a deep latch
- Place baby skin to skin.
- Place baby’s nose at your nipple
- Touch your nipple from baby’s nose to his mouth.
- Consider hand expressing some milk to further help his instincts.
- When baby opens his mouth very wide, quickly move him close.
- If he latches but not far enough, try again!
Is the latch deep enough?
Once baby is latched, check through this list of what you want to see in baby’s latch.
If baby is close to the breast so that you can’t tell, that’s okay. Consider the following.
- Is the latch comfortable? (It should feel like a tugging sensation, not biting or pinching.)
- Does baby have large jaw movements?
- When baby comes off, what does your nipple look like?
When baby comes off the breast, your nipple should look round, or rather, like it did before the feeding. Signs that baby wasn’t on the breast as far as he could have been:
- The nipple looks flat on one side (like a lip-stick tube)
- The nipple has a raised line running through it
Combine the above assessment with what baby’s latch looked and felt like. Use this information to help make decisions with future latches: whether to keep a latch or try for a deeper one.
Amazing Latching Breastfeeding Video
My favorite latching breastfeeding video is by Global Health Media. A lot of their breastfeeding videos are great, but Attaching Your Baby at the Breast is my favorite. It highlights:
- A baby latching in slow motion
- A shallow latch vs a deep latch
- Explanations worded in a way that may resonate better with you.
Bookmark it to come back to later when you’re sleep deprived and struggling to remember the tips for latching deeply. You can find their other breastfeeding videos here. They come in many languages!
Breastfeeding positions
To learn about different breastfeeding positions, check out this article.
Ease your pain while you’re working on latching deeply
For tips to ease your pain while you’re working on latching deeply, check out this helpful article.
Do you know someone who could use this information? Help them out by sharing it!
What latching tips helped you the most? Share below!
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